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The staff members at Sylvan Learning's numerous study facilities understand that each child learns differently. Therefore, they don’t try to implement a uniform tutoring system; instead, they design custom lesson programs based on the results of standardized testing, diagnostic tools, and one-on-one interviews.
Tutors work with students from kindergarten through grade 12, illuminating topics ranging from basic reading and writing to remembering complex algebraic formulas without having them tattooed on your chest. Many of Sylvan’s instructors work in local schools, so they are intimately familiar with common curricula and understand how to gear lessons toward optimal results. After-school and summer classes can ready high-schoolers for the rigors of the ACT or the SAT, or they can help students to wow college-admissions officers with their superior essay-writing skills.

After graduating cum laude from Duquesne University's Mary Pappert School of Music, violinist Kendra Vernon went on to earn a degree in violin performance at Duquesne's Honors College. In 2002, she took the next logical step: sharing her hard-earned skills with aspiring violinists during private lessons. At Vernon Music Studio, she tailors each lesson to the needs of the individual to help students pick up skills quickly and thoroughly. All lessons are one-on-one and free of distractions, and there's a comfortable waiting area for parents.

To propel students feet-first into the industry, the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking has designed a project-based curriculum that combines traditional classroom study with real-world training. The school's one-year program covers the filmmaking process from start to finish, including independent filmmaking in different genres such as fiction, commercials, documentary, and straight-to-Internet shorts of cats completing three-act emotional arcs without ever leaving their boxes. At the end of the project-based program, each student comes away with more than five completed projects that include a 30-second commercial and an 8- to 12-minute thesis film, plus crewing on an additional 25 or more student films. The school also leads shorter programs and workshops designed for the active student, film enthusiast, or veteran filmmaker. Workshops include one-day, two-week, five-week, and three-month filmmaking courses, and a six-month documentary filmmaking program, though few humans can stay awake for a full six month-long movie.

Recently profiled by The Atlantic for its members' innovative inventions, TechShop’s supportive community of inventors, artists, technicians, and alchemists share their excitement about the next big idea in an environment limited only by their collective imagination. The 17,000-square-foot smorgasbord of inventive creativity beckons people of all skill levels to its DIY confines, where members can wield tools not found in most private workshops, slicing through steel with a plasma cutter or accessing 3-D design software to finally realize the goal of crawling inside the Internet. Hands-on classes jump-start creative juices, introducing students to vocational skills including welding, soldering, and woodworking. Neophyte inventors aged 12–17 are welcome but must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to ensure they don't break physics.

Trained by legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner, Christy English Wioncek opened the Bay Area Acting Studio to teach a new generation of actors how to?in the words of her mentor?"live truthfully under imaginary circumstances." Her stable of equally Meisner-steeped instructors leads classes including introductory adult courses, intensive courses for working thespians, and children's classes for young'uns looking to break into the industry early or convince babysitters they've been diagnosed with a life-threatening ice-cream deficiency.

An official American Heart Association CPR training center, Safety Training Seminars has provided first-aid education in life-saving courses since 1989. Although the center's American Heart Association instructors possess extensive life-saving skills, they still know how to present their material for the general public. Despite the urgent nature of the techniques they teach, they manage to create a low-stress and casual environment. Catering to those with busy schedules, classes are scheduled year-round across the Bay Area, with many times and locations available.